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local resident Tommy Thompson, had previously been used in tourist service in downtown Anacortes until Thompson’s death in 1999. The Anacortes Museum hopes to display and occasionally operate No. 1 and its train of three home-built passenger cars. No. 1 was built by H. K. Porter for South Dakota’s Homestake Mining Company in 1909 as a 3.5-ton compressed-air powered 0-4-0. Numbered 22, it worked underground at Homestake’s gold mine in Lead for nearly six decades before being sold to Thompson in 1965. He removed its 900 p.s.i. compressed air storage tank and utilized its Porter running gear to create a credible replica of an 1877-vintage 4.5-ton Forney steam locomotive. A new boiler was fitted to the Porter frame, and Thompson fabricated a new water tank, domes, and cab at his small backyard shop and foundry, where he also cast and machined the parts necessary to convert the locomotive from air to steam operation. In 1986, Thompson’s “Anacortes Railway” began public operation on a three-quarter-mile stretch of newly- laid track between Anacortes’ Great Northern depot and Fourth Street. Until 1999 the train was a community icon, steaming up and down the waterfront on summer weekends. After Thompson passed away, his family moved the train to the Georgetown Power Plant Museum in Seattle for storage, then in 2012 donated it outright to the Anacortes Museum. Although the museum and the Thompson family initially intended to make the train into a static display, members decided to return No. 1 to steam. Members are currently working to find a suitable display location that will allow for limited public operation.
SP “Daylight” 4449 Steams Again
Southern Pacific No. 4449 was fired
up on November 17, after having received firebox work and other repairs, the first time it had been under steam since December 2012. The Lima-built 4-8-4 has spent nearly three years undergoing its 1,472-day inspection at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland, Ore., under the direction of Doyle McCormack. The work included a patch in the firebox where the throat sheet transitions into the combustion chamber, and a complete replacement of all superheater tubes (remarkably, the first time this has been required since the locomotive was manufactured in May 1941). The first use of No. 4449 post-rebuild was the annual Holiday Express train that operates from The Oaks Station in Portland.
Duluth & Northeastern
At Fillmore, Calif., Fillmore & Western completed boiler repairs to its 1913 Baldwin 2-8-0, former Duluth & Northeastern No. 14, and was used to pull the railroad’s annual Santa Train on November 28. No. 14 was initially returned to service by F&W in December 2010 and operated until March 2013 when problems developed with its rear tube sheet. Work to return the Consolidation to service began during the summer of 2015. Boiler tubes (only three years old) were removed, the old flue sheet was taken out, and a new sheet fabricated and installed. Once the boiler tubes were reinstalled, the locomotive was test fired twice and made
a shakedown run before being assigned to Santa Train duties. Additional trips with No. 14 are planned for 2016.
Baldwin 26 Rolls Out On December 10, Baldwin Locomotive
Steam Returns to Steamtown as
Works 0-6-0 No. 26 moved under its own power at Steamtown National Historic Site some 17 years after it was taken out of service and nearly a year since it was first test-fired. To say that the locomotive has undergone a complete rebuilding is an understatement; every part of No. 26, from the boiler to the tender trucks, has been repaired and renewed by the Steamtown shop, and the locomotive now sports an authentic coat of Baldwin Olive Drab. Number 26 spent much of its working
life serving the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Built in March 1929, it was used as a switcher at the Baldwin plant in Eddystone, Pa., for nearly 20 years before being sold to Jackson Iron & Steel (of Jackson, Ohio) in 1948. It was sold to Jerry Jacobsen in the late 1970s and returned to steam in 1981; Jacobsen later traded it to Steamtown for Canadian National 4-6-0 No. 1551 in the mid-1980s, and No. 26 arrived at Scranton in 1990. The 0-6-0 was a regular performer
at Steamtown until it was taken out of service in December 1998 for a much- needed overhaul. It is expected to be the primary motive power for Steamtown’s 2016 Scranton Limited half-hour train rides that travel through the Scranton railroad yard and over a short stretch of the original DL&W main line.
Maine Central 470
New England Steam Corp. president Richard Glueck gets his hands dirty during a recent winter work session. NESCo. purchased Maine Central 4-6-2 No. 470 from the city of Waterville, Maine, in 2015. Volunteers have been preparing the 1924 Alco locomotive and tender for movement to the Downeast Scenic Railroad in Ellsworth, where a full restoration to operation will take place. No. 470 was the last steam locomotive to operate on the old Maine Central lines and has been on display outdoors since 1954.
PHOTO BY KERRI MARION
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